Yesterday marked the 45th year of the enactment of the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) by the British administrators to combat the communist insurgency in 1960. The ISA later gained notoriety when it was used as a political tool by the ruling government to clamp down on dissidents over the years.

About 80 anti-ISA campaigners were present at the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) office in Kuala Lumpur yesterday to reiterate their call to abolish the security act and free all ISA detainees.

The two-hour event featured testimonies from nine ex-ISA detainees; some of them detained in the 60's, others more recent. However, no matter in which decade they were held, all of them had gone through the same torture and suffering under the ISA and each has some grisly tales to tell.

Their ordeals revealed the excessive power granted to the police special branch (SB) personnel, many of whom had allegedly misused their power to torture the detainees during interrogation, such as beating and stripping them naked and threatening them with rape and death.

Quite often, soft tactics were nevertheless also intertwined with the harsh approaches.

Lee Ban Chen, 63, a former unionist said that he was offered to work for the SB during his detention to ensure his 'bright future' as he was told that he was more capable than two other popular Singaporean unionists - Lim Chin Siong and Fong Swee Suan.

47-day hunger strike

"I was persuaded to go back to tongsan (China) because they said it was more suitable for me to live in China. They also assured me that they would sponsor the travel expenses for me and my family," recalled Lee, who was held between 1967 and 1974.

On the torture he received while under detention, Lee remembered one particular incident in 1973 when he was almost paralysed after he was severely assaulted by federal reserve unit personnel.

This incident and the suicide of another detainee sparked the longest ever hunger strike protest of 47 days among the ISA detainees.

Even though he was badly assaulted, Lee described his torture as 'lenient' compared to what other detainees went through.

"Some were tortured up to the stage that they developed schizophrenia, became mentally deranged and suicidal or committed suicide," he added.

Detainee Chow Yong, held from 1967 to 1975 for allegedly being pro-communist, said during one interrogation, a SB officer threw a coin on the dirty floor.

"He spat on the coin and ordered me to move it with my nose for about 1.5 meters. When I stopped moving, I was kicked on my back. After it was done, my face was full of sputum and filth. They were pleased and kept on laughing," he recalled.

Chow was also forced to drink water filled with cigarette ash and stubs when he refused to respond to questions posed by his interrogators. He was also threatened with his life if he refused to cooperate with the SB personnel.

"They showed me two guns and put in on the table. They warned me that if I do not follow their instruction, the police can just kill me and throw my body in the river. They said they could make up a story that I was trying to escape," Chow added.

Torture methods applied on ISA detainees also came in strange forms. For instance, Ban Ah Kam, 59, related how he was asked to climb a basketball pole on one occasion to 'send telegram'. Ban was held for 10 years since 1968.

On another occasion, he was beaten up with a broomstick on his body, hands and legs until the broomstick broke. It was replaced immediately to continue the assault.

Sexual humiliation, death threats

Koh SweeYong, held from 1976 to 1985, was also threatened with death during interrogation and he still feels the trauma of his detention up to this day.

He has penned a book titled 45 years under the ISA which details his personal experience in detention and the notoriety of the act.

Goh Kean Seng 55, held between 1974 and 1982, for allegedly being pro-communist related the sexual humiliation he was subjected to, saying he was stripped naked for long periods in a room where the air-condition was turned on the coldest.

"It was shivering cold. They booed me on my shrunken penis, sneered at me that I would become impotent after their 'special treatment'," added Goh, who is now a secondary school principal.

To humiliate him further, he recalled that a female Malay clerk was also requested to watch him shivering in the cold naked.

But the most humiliating experience for him was the time he was asked to strip naked and forced to see pornographic photos of European men and women in sexual orgies, supposedly to gauge his mental strength against the temptation of "yellow culture".

"I refused to open my eyes but the interrogator forced them open and fondled my genital. They jeered at me for being sexually aroused by the pornography and claimed that they had succeeded in proving that I was after all not a firm fighter," the educationist added.

The interrogators also threatened to rape his girlfriend should he refuse to cooperate. On another occasion, he was 'praised' for being able to withstand a five-day round-the-clock interrogation.

"The SB officer said I ranked second to a 'champion' who managed to stay awake for seven consecutive days of interrogation a few years ago," Goh recalled.

One of the few female ISA detainees, Irene Xavier, who was held for a year at the Kamunting detention camp in 1987 said she was also threatened with rape.

She was asked to keep her panties during the first 60 days of detention. "A male officer told me that I need to show the women officer my soiled sanitary pad to prove that I was menstruating," she said.

Lured to escape with gun

PAS politician Mohamad Sabu, known for his humorous oratory, brought laughter to the gathering when he started his sharing by quipping that he is now ranked as a corporal (he was detained twice under the ISA) and has no wish to be 'promoted' to sergeant.

He was first detained for two years in 1984 and served the second detention from 1987 to 1989. His incarcerations were linked to his political activities in the Islamic party.

After serving the first 60 days of his second detention, he was asked to state whether he was supportive of a certain PAS-associated Islamic scholar.

"There is apparently only one answer. When I said yes, they told me 'you will be sent to Kamunting' - I never realised it is so easy to be sent to Kamunting.

"They then persuaded me to join Umno, saying I will be released if I join Umno. Now we know that a condition to gain ISA freedom is to become an Umno member," he said to chuckles from the floor.

Saari Sungib, held twice under the ISA during the height of reformasi from 1998 to 2003, was detained for his political activities.

"They trumped up charges and wanted me to believe that (sacked ex-deputy premier) Anwar Ibrahim wanted to take over the government with every means including killing (then prime minister) Dr Mahathir Mohamad," he said in a testimony that listed 285 alleged police misdeeds committed against reformasi activists under ISA detention.

On one occasion, he said he was asked by a SB officer to write an essay on "why not I do it through Umno".

The interrogators also told Saari about the existence of a 'federal investigation team' that served as the guardians to control everything in the country and could "plan and kill the prime minister if he is not leading the country in the right direction".

Detained with Saari during the same period, Hishamuddin Rais recounted one occasion when the SB tried to 'trap' him into escaping with a gun when he was left alone with the firearm in a van.

"Well, I am a 'seasoned player' too. I was detained in Australia, Moscow and Bombay before. If they think I would pick up the gun and escape and then charge me later, they had better think twice. I didn't fall into that trap," said the film producer-cum- malaysiakini columnist.

Written laws on SB unit

Human rights group Suaram director and ex-ISA detainee Dr Kua Kia Soong said the ISA provided the special branch "a licence to torture" and described it as the 'scandalous side' of Malaysia Boleh .

The Police Royal Commission in its report has expressed concern that the SB "may be manipulated by a party in power", noting that there are no legal provisions to deal with the functions, powers and duties of the police unit.

The commission, formed by the government and tasked to improve the police force, therefore recommended that accountability should be enhanced via "safeguards to be written into the law".

The concerned recommendation was initially rejected in Parliament but Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi later assured that all 125 recommendations in the Police Royal Commission's report will be implemented in stages.